"What are you doing?" a voice interrupted the animal trainer's mutterings.
The animal trainer and his lion looked toward the source of the voice and found three young men he had never seen before. "Who are you? Me? I am Mohji, the vice-captain of the Buggy Pirates, the world's greatest animal trainer!"
"You little devils, get out of here right now, or Richie will eat you all up!"
"Roar!" The lion with the pink mane roared in response.
The visitors were none other than Naruto Uzumaki and his two companions. After strolling around the town for a while, they encountered other advance scouts from the Ninja World. After learning about the latest developments in the Ninja World and receiving a sum of cash from them, they began buying items they liked in town so that they could present them as local specialties to acquaintances after the mission ended and they returned to the Ninja World.
After the sudden change in weather, the three of them headed towards the port. Since Luffy and the others hadn't decided on a meeting point, they figured they might as well just wait on the ship. However, as soon as they returned, they saw some suspicious figures lurking below the ship.
"Hmph, why say so much? He's obviously up to no good. Let's subdue him first." Faced with the other party's rudeness, Sasuke Uchiha took action first.
Sasuke pulled a Kunai from his portable ninja tool pouch and charged forward, meeting the surprised gazes of the person opposite him.
The beast tamer Mohji and his pet lion Richie never expected that the brat opposite them would dare to attack them. After all, when he dealt with the Straw Hat Pirates before, Sasuke and the other two were not Sasuke. In addition, given Richie's size and appearance, ordinary people would not dare to look at such a beast, let alone take the initiative to attack.
Although surprised, Mohji was capable of being the vice-captain of the Buggy Pirates, so he must have some strength. Seeing Sasuke Uchiha charging towards him, Tarik threw down the damp match in his hand and reached for the leather whip hanging at his waist.
Meanwhile, Lion Richie cooperated perfectly with Mohji. As soon as it saw Mohji's movements, it immediately got up and opened its mouth wide in Sasuke's direction, as if to pounce.
However, this was the opportunity Sasuke had been waiting for. Seeing that both the lion and Mohji were watching his movements closely, he immediately activated his eye power and used his Sharingan: "Genjutsu: Sharingan ".
Yes, from the very beginning, Sasuke Uchiha never intended to engage in close combat with the man and beast before him. After all, putting aside the beast tamer for the moment, this lion was clearly skilled in close combat. Therefore, there was no need to use his fingertips to attack their strengths; it was more appropriate to use his Sharingan.
As for whether this would hinder his growth with his Sharingan, Sasuke Uchiha never even considered that. After all, Madara Uchiha, the head of their Uchiha Clan, had already proven to the world that their clan could stand out from the crowd even just by virtue of their eyes.
"So weak." Seeing the man and beast on the other side already lying on the ground, Sasuke stepped forward and poked the huge lion with his foot, then looked at Naruto Uzumaki Hinata Hyuga, "Let's get on the ship."
"Wait a minute, Naruto-kun, and Sasuke-kun too." Just as Sasuke attacked Mohji, Hinata simultaneously used her Byakugan to survey the surroundings for safety. "There's a group of Marines over there, armed and heading this way. I saw a few of them carrying explosives. Huh? I also saw Nami and Usopp. They're ahead of the Marines; they'll be here soon."
Naruto Uzumaki scratched his head. "Is that so? It seems those Marines are still planning to attack our ship."
Naruto then looked at the man and beast lying on the ground. "Speaking of which, I think I heard Usopp mention the Buggy Pirates before. He said that he defeated the entire Buggy Pirates by himself, and even their captain has disappeared."
"Hmph, bragging." Sasuke commented directly.
" Naruto-kun, what should we do now?" Hinata Hyuga asked Naruto Uzumaki.
"Let's get on the ship first, hoist the anchor, hoist the sails, and be ready to set sail at any time. Then we'll see what those marines are up to. If they're just passing through, we'll ignore them," Naruto Uzumaki said.
"Thank goodness, it seems our ship is fine. That's Hinata and the others." Nami and Usopp breathed a sigh of relief when they arrived at the port and saw the Going Merry intact. Usopp even plopped down on the ground.
It was the observant Nami who noticed something different about the ship: one of the sails was already raised, indicating that someone had boarded. Upon closer inspection, she Hinata and the others.
Seeing that Nami and Usopp were carrying large bags of various things, Naruto and Sasuke told Hinata to stay on the ship, " Hinata, you stay on the ship and keep an eye on those Marines for us. We'll go down and bring their stuff up."
With the help of Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, the package that was incredibly heavy for Nami and Usopp was easily brought onto the ship.
However, just as they boarded the ship, they heard Hinata's warning. "Those marines are coming for us. They'll be coming out of that alley in less than a hundred meters."
Sure enough, following Hinata's pointing direction, everyone saw a group of Marines wearing hats with the word "MARINE" on them rushing out.
Tap tap, tap tap, tap tap...
"We're almost at the port area. We need to destroy all the pirate ships!" At this moment, a squadron of marines was obeying their commander's orders and heading towards the port.
"Oh no, they're trying to escape! All hands prepare to fire! Ready!" Sure enough, the navy was heading straight for them. As soon as they saw the group on the ship, they immediately ordered their men to prepare to attack.
Upon hearing the order, the naval soldiers quickly found their positions, knelt on one knee, and shouted, "Raise your guns and fire!"
However, the navy was too far from the ship, and due to the heavy rain, they couldn't hit anyone, but they did create many shell craters on the Golden Merlin.
Seeing that they hadn't gained anything substantial, the naval officer in charge didn't rush into anything. "Contact the artillery unit and seize all the pirate ships. If they insist on leaving port, open fire immediately."
Their navy, upon arriving, received orders to ensure that the pirates could not set sail smoothly. Ideally, they should seize the pirate ships directly; otherwise, they should blow them up.
The Fire Pistol were positioned in front of the artillerymen. If Naruto tried to disembark and approach, they would open fire. Even if they couldn't kill them outright, they would hinder their advance and give the artillery units ample time to fire.
" Nami, what should we do?" Usopp was Transfiguration when he saw the cannons already aimed at a pirate ship.
"Notify the artillery units to prepare to fire!" The naval officer said, his hands behind his back, looking at Naruto and his group.
Bang!
" Rasengan." Fortunately, most of the cannons used in this world use solid shot, relying only on the gunpowder inside the barrel for propulsion, so their speed and range are limited. Naruto's Rasengan can easily shatter the cannonballs.
"Thank goodness, I'm saved!" Seeing the cannonball aimed at the Golden Merlin, Usopp's legs went weak and he collapsed to the ground, feeling as if he had lost all color in his body. It wasn't until the cannonball exploded in the sky that his eyes regained their light.
However, this was just the beginning. After all, there was more than one cannon present, and naturally, more than one shell was fired. Although the shell that was going to hit the Golden Merlin had been shattered, several others still landed in the sea near the ship.
A large number of solid shells fell into the surrounding sea, creating violent waves. The entire ship swayed violently from side to side under the force of these waves. Although Naruto Uzumaki were able to firmly nail their feet to the deck with their own strength, it still affected their performance to some extent. "If this continues, the Golden Merlin will be capsized sooner or later."
Seeing that they were in trouble, Sasuke Uchiha believed that they couldn't just wait for Naruto Uzumaki to passively defend themselves; they should take the initiative.
" Lightning Release: Lightning Shuriken." Sasuke took out several Shuriken from his ninja tool pouch, gathered a large amount of Lightning Release into the Shuriken, and then used the Uchiha Clan's unique throwing technique to throw them towards the distant artillery unit.
These Shuriken, infused with a large amount of Lightning Release, emitted a loud hissing sound and flashes as they flew through the air, making them easily spotted by the marines, who then took cover early on.
To prevent the gleaming object from exploding upon landing, the navy even deliberately kept a distance of several dozen meters from the landing site.
However, this was of no use, since Sasuke Uchiha had already considered this possibility. Under these circumstances, his decision to still use such a ninjutsu must have been based on his own considerations.
"Ugh..."
Of these Shuriken, except for one that was destroyed in mid-air by the Navy's Fire Pistol, the rest landed successfully, and the moment they hit the ground, they unleashed a large amount of Lightning Release contained within them.
In the pouring rain, these Lightning Release easily engulfed all the surrounding marines, and in an instant, many of them collapsed to the ground.
The heavy rain, while aiding the spread of Lightning Release and allowing it to instantly defeat all the Marines present, also dispersed its power, meaning it could only knock them down but not kill them.
Fortunately, although they couldn't kill them, the paralyzing ability of these Lightning Release prevented the marines from getting up. Some who fell face down, while not directly electrocuted, were unable to move due to paralysis and were likely to drown in the rain.
"I see Sanji." Hinata Hyuga Byakugan, suddenly spotted a familiar figure.
Sure enough, Sanji quickly ran out. " Nami- san, Hinata- san, I'm back!"
Since all the marines had been defeated by Sasuke Uchiha's Lightning Release, Sanji ran onto the ship without any hindrance.
--
"Where's the sea? The rain is so heavy I can't tell which way to go." Zoro, as always, is terrible at traveling.
"We've found them! We absolutely can't let them get away!" These Marines, who came to the East Blue with Smoker from headquarters, still held their ground tightly against Luffy and his Luffy despite the terrible weather.
"These guys are really tough. Should we stop and deal with them?" Zoro asked his companion as they ran.
"No, we don't have that much time," Sanji disagreed with wasting too much time here, but then he looked up and suddenly noticed a woman standing in their path. "Who is that beautiful lady?"
Zoro noticed the other person upon hearing this, but after seeing who it was, he remained silent and didn't say a word.
"I never imagined you were Roronoa Zoro, and a pirate at that... You... you've deceived me." The woman stood there alone in the rain.
Upon hearing the woman's statement, Sanji was the first to become enraged, immediately confronting Zoro and demanding, "What? What did you do to her?"
The group stopped in their Luffy because of the woman blocking their way. Zoro pushed Luffy aside and walked towards the woman. "You just didn't ask my name. I didn't lie to you."
"I will never allow a villain like you to possess that famous Famous Sword, the Famous Sword — Wado Ichimonji! I will take it back!" The woman declared her ideals just as she had before in the knife shop.
"In that case, why don't you give it a try?" Zoro wasn't annoyed by the woman's attitude; on the contrary, he smiled.
Ping!
The two swords clashed instantly, but Zoro's superior strength allowed him to press the sword down in front of him.
"You bastard, how dare you lay a hand on a lady!" Sanji couldn't stand seeing any woman being bullied in front of him.
"Please don't interfere," the woman interrupted Sanji, "This is a battle between Roronoa and me, outsiders please do not intervene."
"Did you hear that? You guys go first." Zoro said calmly, his back to the two of them.
Upon hearing Zoro's words, Luffy immediately patted Sanji on the shoulder and said, "Let's go then."
However, before leaving, Sanji didn't forget to threaten Zoro: " Zoro, if you dare to hurt a lady, I will absolutely not forgive you."
At that moment, the Marines who had been chasing Luffy and his crew caught up. Upon seeing the scene, they immediately exclaimed, " Tashigi!"
Zoro sensed someone approaching and immediately increased his strength, forcing Tashigi to defend herself while he used his left hand to draw another sword from his waist.